March 14, 1901] 



NATURE 



475 



structure, and to interpret from it the clinical facts of each case. 

 Next, the study of fevers, especially Sir William Jenner's obser- 

 vations on the essential difference between typhus and typhoid, 

 and the improved treatment of fevers that was taught and prac- 

 tised by Graves of Dublin ; he who said that he desired for an 

 epitaph these words, " He fed fevers." Then, the invention of 

 the ophthalmoscope by Helmholtz and the laryngoscope by 

 Garcia, and the rise of special departments in hospital teaching, 

 and of special work in practice. Next, the exact use of electricity 

 in the diagnosis and treatment of nerve diseases, especially the 

 work of Duchenne. The use of the thermometer followed, not 

 invented all at once like the stethoscope, but very slowly 

 established by years of work and millions of observations, especi- 

 ally the work of Wunderlich. Then the abolition of the old 

 rough-and-ready methods of medical treatment, of useless bleed- 

 ing and purging and low diet, and shameful abuse of mercury ; 

 and the knowledge of the selective action of drugs, especially the 

 physiological study of such drugs as strychnine, curari, atropin 

 and digitalis. Last of all, and best of all, the discovery of anaes- 

 thetics. 



The report of the Decimal Association records the progress made 

 in the provision of instruction in the metric system of weights and 

 measures, and the adoption of the system. By an article intro- 

 duced into the code of elementary schools in iQoo, instruction in 

 the principles of the metric system, and in the advantages to be 

 gained from uniformity in the method of fcrming multiples and 

 submultiples of the unit, is made obligatory in the upper 

 standards. Negotiations are in progress for bringing about a 

 conference in Paris of official delegates and others, representing 

 Great Britain, the United States and Russia, in favour of the 

 adoption of the metric weights and measures in those countries. If 

 this conference be held it will doubtless have important results. 

 Active steps continue to be taken in the United States, and a 

 bill for the introduction of the metric weights and measures in 

 the State Departments is now before congress at Washington, 

 and has been reported on favourably by the committee on 

 coinage, weights and measures. The growth of public opinion 

 in this country in favour of the metric weights and measures has 

 attracted much attention in the United States, and has given an 

 impetus to the movement there. In Canada, the Government 

 are said to be seriously considering the adoption of the metric 

 weights and measures, and several encouraging communications 

 have been received by the Decimal Association from residents in 

 that country. In Russia there is a growing disposition on the 

 part of the Government to adopt the metric system, and there 

 are good grounds for believing that an important step will be 

 taken in that country shortly. In July last a report was issued 

 by the Foreign Office which contained the replies of Her late 

 Majesty's representatives in Europe to a circular addressed to 

 them by the Marquis of Salisbury, asking for information as to 

 the actual experience of nations which had adopted the metric 

 system. The replies showed that in all cases the change was 

 made without much difficulty, that there had never been any 

 desire to return to the former system in use, and that the 

 adoption of the metric system had assisted in the development 

 of the trade of the countries which had adopted it. The second 

 part of this report has just been published, and bears out these 

 conclusions. 



A SIMPLE elementary exposition of the principles of thermo- 

 dynamics treated by means of the familiar /, v diagram is given 

 by Mr. Robert H. Thurston in the Journal of the Franklin 

 Institute, under the title " Elementary Graphics and Geometry 

 of Thermodynamics." 



In the Rendiconto of the Naples Academy (January), Prof. 

 Domenico de Francesco discusses certain problems in the dyna- 

 mics of pseudospherical space. In a previous memoir the author 

 NO. 1637. VOL. 63] 



gave an investigation of *' motion under no forces " for such space, 

 and he here interprets for the same kind of space the differential 

 equations which in ordinary space represent motion about a 

 fixed point under arbitrary forces. 



In the ordi^iary theory of elasticity it is proved that when a 

 body occupying a simply connected region is not acted on by 

 either surface tractions or bodily forces the strain vanishes at 

 every point of the interior. Nevertheless, bodies may exist in 

 which internal tensions act ; for example, we may imagine a 

 split ring the ends of which do not meet, and suppose these ends 

 brought into contact and welded together. In the Atti dei 

 Lincei, x. 3, Signer G. Weingarten points out that in all such 

 cases surfaces must exist at which the displacements are dis- 

 continuous, and he discusses the properties of such surfaces. 

 The subject is an interesting one, but the paper is only a short 

 note. 



In the Journal of the Franklin Institute, Mt. John Price 

 Jackson discusses the use of electricity for coal mining. Elec- 

 tricity may be economically used for lighting, hoisting purposes, 

 pumping, cutting, drilling, running fans, operating breakers or 

 washers, propelling bucket or belt-lifts, driving repair shop 

 apparatus, &c. The question as to whether any or all of these 

 applications shall be used is dependent directly upon local condi- 

 tions. If a system of mines owned by one company are supplied 

 from a central power-house, it is clearly possible to entirely do 

 without local steam plants at the individual mines. Such an 

 arrangement has several advantages in the matter of economy of 

 fuel, the very great economy in repairs and a still further economy 

 in working speed efficiency. 



Science Abstracts always contains statements of results of 

 interest to all students of science, as well as descriptions of work 

 of special value to those engaged in work in physics and 

 electrical engineering. To the latter the periodical is invaluable, 

 and it should find a permanent place in the library of every 

 Technical Institute and School of Science, as well as in educa- 

 tional institutions of higher rank. Many subjects are described 

 in the abstracts, which are concise, well arranged, and of real 

 importance to workers in all branches of physical science. 

 There is no better way of creating an interest in scientific work 

 and arousing a spirit of emulation than by making students 

 familiar with the progress of scientific knowledge. 



The Irish Naturalist for March contains an excellent ac- 

 count of the natural history of that comparatively rare visitor 

 to the British coasts, the grey phalarope, by Mr. C J. Patten. 



In the Entomologist for March, Mr. W. L. Distant describes 

 two new species from West Africa of that remarkable genus 

 of Heteroptera known as Pephricus, the members of which so 

 curiously resemble crumpled and broken leaves. The genus 

 is of especial interesting as being one of the first in which 

 "mimicry" was noticed, Sparman, who discovered the type 

 species in 1775, mentioning his surprise on observing signs of 

 active life in what he had taken for a dead leaf gnawed by 

 caterpillars. 



A HIGHLY suggestive and thoughtful paper on the question of 

 the arboreal ancestry of marsupials and the mutual relations of 

 the mammalian subclasses appears in the February number of 

 the American Naturalist, by Mr. B. A. Bensley, who is now in 

 this country studying marsupial ancestry. Taking as a text 

 Dollo's view that marsupials were originally arboreal, that, on 

 account of their foot-structure, they could not have been 

 ancestors of placentals, and that they themselves are degenerate 

 placentals, Mr. Bensley contrasts this with Huxley's scheme of 

 mammalian evolution. According to the latter the Prototheria, 

 which became specialised into the modern monotremes, gave 



